


Everything Happens So Much

by Shane_for_Wax



Series: Holtzmann the ADHD Engineer [13]
Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Gen, Holtzmann Whump, Hurt/Comfort, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2016-12-02
Packaged: 2018-09-03 01:30:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8691262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shane_for_Wax/pseuds/Shane_for_Wax
Summary: Holtzmann tries to go to the mall like a "normal person" and ends up getting major sensory overload but luckily Patty is nearby to help her out.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So a long time ago and I can't even remember who asked messaged me on tumblr and requested Holtz whump. So here it is, who knows how many weeks later because I can't find who asked now. But anyways, yay! Also a warning for depictions of ableism and a dickhead of a security guard.

There was a reason Holtzmann refused to go into stores by herself and it had everything to do with her ADHD. The same ADHD that nearly made her fail to get her doctorate. The same ADHD that sometimes ramped almost all of her senses up to 11. Scents, sights, sounds, all came together to make her miserable. And in public she had nowhere to hide from it all and would sometimes stand in place, willing everything to just stop for a second. But all standing rooted in place ever did was make her be in the way and for her legs to complain later.

At the moment she was sitting in a corner of the department store she thought she could hide in from the smells wafting throughout the mall originating at the food court. She had been wrong; this department store had a pretty substantial perfume and cologne section. All the different ones were giving her a migraine and making it hard to think. She liked thinking, thinking was a good thing! And all getting a migraine did was make her even more sensitive to the smells and sounds around her. She had popped a couple of generic brand migraine medication the moment she had noticed the strong smell of perfume but she had reasons to doubt it had helped anything.

Her phone buzzed, again. It took a second for her to even recognize the sensation of it against her hip as most of her attention was on trying to block the pain so she could try to get the hell out of this damn department store. Someone happened to walk by her spot and trailed an almost visible to Holtzman cloud of perfume. It made her stiffen and try to hold her breath but it didn't matter. Nothing she did now was going to matter until she actually _left_. A fresh wave of nausea and another strong throb in her temples later and she had her phone in her hand but couldn't tell you when she had actually pulled it from her pocket. 

[Are you okay?] it was Patty. Holtzmann looked above that to see she had actually texted Patty first, talking about how she was at the mall and that if she didn't hear from Holtz in twenty minutes to message. 

[Head hurts.] was the only reply she could type at that moment and send. 

[I'm on my way.] the phone buzzed in her hand. She had taken the sound off as soon as the headache had started, because even the ringtone she had cobbled together for Patty would have made things even worse. 

A whimper escaped her, sounding extremely loud to her own ears, before she curled in that much further on herself and pulled part of her jacket up over her head in an attempt to muffle the sounds around her.

What seemed like an eternity later, with her head just getting that much worse, it took her a little while to realize someone was standing in front of her. She looked up in relief only to find it wasn't Patty. 

“You need to get up!” the woman was saying, far too loudly even if Holtzmann wasn't in the grip of a nasty migraine. “Did you hear me? Get up!” somehow the woman had gotten even louder and was talking slower, as if she thought Holtz didn't speak English (though how talking loudly and slowly was going to make someone magically understand was beyond her). 

“I-I'm waiting for a f-friend,” Holtzmann managed to get out, every word sending electric shocks of pain from her jaw to her temple then back down again. 

“Well, you can't do that here! That door leads to the changing rooms!” the woman was almost screaming by that point and Holtzmann was starting to wonder if she could die from a migraine being too painful. 

“I'm not some pervert! I have a medical condition!” Holtzmann felt outraged at the very idea she was just sitting there to maybe get a peek at some woman trying on pants or a bra. 

“Store rules, you can't loiter around here!”

“Please stop yelling at me!” 

“MOVE!” 

Holtzmann could feel the sting of tears but she couldn't tell you if it was from the pain in her temples or the frustration of trying to get this woman to understand the blonde's predicament. 

“I can't! If I do, my friend w-won't be able to f-find me!” a half-sob racked her body and made her stutter. 

“No more lying!” the woman actually grabbed Holtz's arm and yanked her up to her feet, which of course made the migraine that much worse. Holtzmann couldn't remember the last time she had hurt so bad. It was when she got to her feet that her nose picked up a very strong scent of perfume, coming from the woman standing in front of her. 

“Let go!” Holtzmann said, jerking backward to break the woman's hold on her. 

“You need to leave the store, now, before I call security!” 

If her head wasn't pounding so bad, Holtzmann might have fought that order. But instead she clenched her eyes shut then opened them before walking off, even if every step made her head bob which made it throb. 

Some minutes later she had circled around the perfume section the best she could in order to leave the store and enter the mall proper. She cast about for some place to go before finding a bench that was unfortunately situated in front of a Hot Topic which had its music as loud as it could legally go. Holding back sobs the best she could, she texted Patty her updated location.

She thought that it was perfectly acceptable for her to sit there until mall security showed up. 

“We got a call about someone taking drugs in the Macy's. Description fits you,” the man was saying but it wasn't quite registering in Holtzy's sluggish brain.

“I wasn't! It's perfectly legal to take ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and caffeine!” Now she was a druggie? In addition to being a pervert? Great. And she couldn't even remember why she thought this outing by herself had been the greatest idea.

“You're going to have to come with me.”

“For what reason?”

“For being combative and assault.”

“Assault what?! Who?! Listen, that lady grabbed me first I just pulled away. I'm sure it's on whatever security camera you got in those department stores!” 

Her jaw was starting to hurt by that point but she was so outraged by the whole damn situation she was ignoring the pain valiantly. 

“Holtz? Holtzy!” a very familiar voice broke in and the relief was palpable. Patty was here! Patty would save her ass like she always did! 

“I'm sorry, ma'am, but I'm gonna have to ask you to keep your distance.” 

“Hell naw! That's my friend. I need to get her out of here, she has a medical problem.”

“I have to detain her for assault and suspected drug use.”

Patty was staring at the security guard like he had grown a second head. Holtzmann's jaw had actually dropped. 

“That's a damn lie! Both of those things never happened!” 

“Holtzy, where's your medicine bottle?” Patty asked, siddling up next to the blonde in a protective posture. Holtz quickly looked through her pockets before finding the tiny bottle in her jacket. She pulled it out then held it up. 

“See? It's just generic excedrin. No narcotics or methamphetamines.” She was so glad she didn't carry her Adderall on her or else she would have been doomed. 

“You could have put the narcs in that bottle,” the guard said after scrutinizing the label. 

“Listen, rent-a-cop, you aren't actually police so you can't actually arrest me. I'm leaving,” Holtzmann said firmly before turning and heading off. The man blocked her a couple steps later.

“I can't let you leave. I can make a citizen's arrest just as well as anyone.”

“You have nothing to arrest me for. You can't keep me from leaving.” 

“I can't believe this. We saved New York and you want to detain us?” Patty said. 

“Oh, you saved New York huh? You got proof for that claim?” the security guard asked. 

“We're the flipping Ghostbusters you idiot!” 

Holtzmann cringed and put her hands over her ears.

“Sorry,” Patty said, very quietly. Holtz shrugged a little, a nonverbal 'apology accepted'. 

"The Ghostbusters are here? Is there a ghost in the mall?" someone around them said.

"No, no ghost in the mall," Patty said quickly. 

"A demon then right?" someone else asked. A crowd was starting to form now.

"Just the guy in front of us," Patty said after casting about for a reply and a way to use the growing crowd. 

"Hey, ya gotta let them leave! They're heroes you know!"

The crowd had gotten even bigger and was surging closer. Holtzmann found herself getting even more overwhelmed by everything. She was going into overload. She groped blindly for Patty's hand for a moment before finding it and grabbing it as a type of anchor. Patty was here, she would be fine. Patty would keep her safe; she always did.

The security guard was just one person and he knew that. There were at least two dozen people around them now. Holtzmann watched as the guard slumped, actually knowing when he was beaten.

“Fine, get out of here. But I don't want to catch either of you back here,” he said, and Holtz was sure he meant that to sound like a bad thing but she had resolved already to never come back.

“Fine by me. Byyyye,” with that, Holtz shot off with Patty in tow.

They had almost made it out of the mall entirely before Holtzmann was skidding to a halt then turning and darting into the nearby bathrooms. Patty followed and watched as Holtzmann shakily gripped one of the sinks inside and looked paler than Patty had ever seen her. 

“Holtzy? Holtzy, baby, you look like you're going to throw up.” 

A shaky laugh escaped the blonde which ended up morphing into a dry heave of sorts. 

“Trust me, I feel like I need to,” she managed to get out. “I'm sorry. I-I know today was your 'you' day and everything and--”

“Lemme stop ya there. Holtzy, I love you and I told you you could ask for my help when you needed it. This is the first time you've taken me up on that, usually I just have to figure you're not doing so hot. Besides, I owe you from when you surprised me at my apartment when I was dealing with Aunt Flo.”

Patty had stepped closer by then and was gently rubbing the blonde's back as she spoke. The engineer was actually vibrating from nerves. 

“Why the hell were you here by yourself anyways? Abby usually goes with you on trips when you aren't dumpster divin' right?”

Ah, man, she had been hoping Patty wouldn't ask that. 

“Well, I had to see if I really couldn't go without someone by now. I mean, when I was working at Higgins with Abby, it was really only her I spoke to. I couldn't handle much interaction beyond that. Then I met you and Erin and I just... I figured... maybe I finally had that executive function I've heard so much about.”

“So instead of trying the shallow end of the pool you dove into the deep end without even some floaties?” 

“Well, when you put it like that it just sounds dumb.” 

“No, it sounds like your ADHD manifested a little differently this time. You miscalculated. But I'm here now. But please don't make this failed experiment keep you in the firehouse for the rest of your life.”

Holtzmann couldn't help but stare at the woman.

“I read a lot of non-fiction, remember?”

“No, it's not that. It's just... most people would have agreed it was stupid.”

“In case you haven't noticed, I ain't most people. Your stomach settle yet?”

A pause as Holtz's hand brushed along her middle before nodding mutely. 

“Then let's go get you a soda and head back to the firehouse. And next time you decide to retry an outing on your own, maybe go to, like, a convenience store or somethin'.” 

“Duly noted, Patricia.”

**Author's Note:**

> As always, feel free to make requests or send in prompts to me on tumblr @jacensolodjo


End file.
